Limelite: True fiction but much better exploration of the harrowing effects of people fleeing oppression and terror, with the bonus of including how their undertakings can have unexpected and horrifying consequences for those who get involved in helping them.

When Enaiatollah Akbari's village in Afghanistan falls to Taliban rule in early 2000, his mother shepherds the ten-year-old (?) boy into Pakistan but has to leave him there all alone to fend for himself. He makes his way over the course of 5 difficult, dangerous and painful years through Iran, Turkey, and Greece before he seeks political asylum in Italy at the age of fifteen. A touching and honest account of a remarkable travail, In The Sea will stand as a testament to both the brutality and the humanity of this period. ( )

Amazon summary: When ten-year-old Enaiatollah Akbari’s small village in Afghanistan falls prey to Taliban rule in early 2000, his mother shepherds the boy across the border into Pakistan but has to leave him there all alone to fend for himself. Thus begins Enaiat’s remarkable and often punish­ing five-year ordeal, which takes him through Iran, Turkey, and Greece before he seeks political asylum in Italy at the age of fifteen. Along the way, Enaiat endures the crippling physical and emotional agony of dangerous border crossings, trekking across bitterly cold mountain pathways for days on end or being stuffed into the false bottom of a truck. But not every­one is as resourceful, resilient, or lucky as Enaiat, and there are many heart-wrenching casualties along the way. Based on Enaiat’s close collaboration with Italian novelist Fabio Geda and expertly rendered in English by an award- winning translator, this novel reconstructs the young boy’s memories, perfectly preserving the childlike perspective and rhythms of an intimate oral history. ( )

The Taliban take over a small town in Afghanistan and ten-year old Enaiat is taken and left in Pakistan by his mother who is hoping that he will be safe away from the fighting. This book is the interesting and heart wrenching story of his six year journey through Iran, Turkey, Greece and finally to Italy where he receives asylum. ( )

While instructing readers to believe the book is a work of fiction, the author insists this tale is based on the true life experiences of Enaiatollah Akbari. He is an Afghan boy whose mother took him from his native village to Pakistan where she abandoned him to make his own way, spiriting him out of his Taliban-dominated homeland where violence and oppression ruled. On his own and attaching no importance or significance to those who helped him in his journey, the narrator – Akbari – delivers his travelogue.

It is a thin “and then” story, replete with harrowing escapes from authorities, captures, more escapes, perilous treks across mountains, dangerous open water crossings aboard inflatable rafts, and expensive and dangerous transport arranged by human traffickers hidden in secret compartments of lorries or clinging to the undercarriages of heavy vehicles.

Regarding the literary merit of the book: There is no authorial reflection, no looking backward by the main character to gain understanding of how his experiences impacted him, much less consideration of what might have been. Akbari makes it plain that he felt no human involvement with others. Beyond making a phone call to his mother 8 years after she abandoned him and committing to send her money along with a vague plan to return to Afghanistan once it is democratic, the book is devoid of human feeling.

The story is a mild page-turner, but it is not compelling, nor is it memorable. It is but another of the endless such tales of desperate emigration to lands of hope and promise but nothing distinguishes it from the ordinary. It is not uplifting, nor particularly unique, and absent an angle of perspective, it reads like a list of events that don’t particularly impact the reader because there is no emotional content at all. Consequently, the reader has no reason to empathize.

Further, the egregious insertion of the "translator’s" (Geda) questions put to "Akbari" also annoys. Nothing is added to the reading experience by them, and the content of the various prodding questions could have been simply stated in a prologue, “Enaiatollah records what happened to him but offers no meaning, interpretation, or assessment of those events on the man he is today.”

Sadly, this book could have been much better had the author done his job of fictionalizing the story adequately. Instead, he instructs the reader to take on the task of suspension of disbelief with no help from him. ( )

The true and heart-wrenching story of a ten year old Afghan boy who has to fend for himself. He crosses into Pakistan then begins an arduous five year ordeal with human traffickers and occasional sympathetic help that takes him through Iran, Turkey, Greece and finally Italy. A story of hope and survival, with an epic need to find a solution to the underlying problems. ( )

Wikipedia in English

When ten-year-old Enaiatollah Akbari’s small village in Afghanistan falls prey to Taliban rule in early 2000, his mother shepherds the boy across the border into Pakistan but has to leave him there all alone to fend for himself. Thus begins Enaiat’s remarkable and often punish­ing five-year ordeal, which takes him through Iran, Turkey, and Greece before he seeks political asylum in Italy at the age of fifteen.

Along the way, Enaiat endures the crippling physical and emotional agony of dangerous border crossings, trekking across bitterly cold mountain pathways for days on end or being stuffed into the false bottom of a truck. But not every­one is as resourceful, resilient, or lucky as Enaiat, and there are many heart-wrenching casualties along the way.

Based on Enaiat’s close collaboration with Italian novelist Fabio Geda and expertly rendered in English by an award- winning translator, this novel reconstructs the young boy’s memories, perfectly preserving the childlike perspective and rhythms of an intimate oral history.

Told with humor and humanity, In the Sea There Are Crocodiles brilliantly captures Enaiat’s moving and engaging voice and lends urgency to an epic story of hope and survival.

An unflinching, inspirational, and incredibly moving novel based on the true story of Enaiatollah Akbari, a young boy whose agonizing struggle begins after his native Afghanistan becomes a dangerous place to live. His mother shepherds him across the border into Pakistan but has to leave him there to fend for himself.… (more)